As is well understood in the vacuum furnace art, work pieces (e.g., tools which are being hardened and the like) are held by loadable devices such as racks or hearths. The loadable devices are designed to permit exposure of the work pieces for both heating and quenching. A major problem that occurs is that the loadable devices are subjected to great heat and since the loadable device is very often supporting a great deal of weight, the frame of a device sags and/or is in some way distorted. As a result of such distortion, when next the loadable device is used the work pieces do not lie evenly and this results in uneven distribution of applied heat and an uneven exposure to quenching gas (i.e. uneven hardening). In addition in the prior art, the loadable devices have not been flexible by way of accommodating different widths or lengths of work pieces nor have prior art loadable devices been designed to accommodate different heights of work pieces.
The present device is reversible to insure that the sag wear and distortion can be shared on both sides of an assembly. In addition, it provides for changing the separation between support bars to accommodate different sizes of work pieces and, in addition, by design, permits an assembly to be stacked with other like assemblies to effect different heights therebetween.